Missing Childhood
by Jennifer Erbele
Summary: Harry discovers that even wizards make mistakes in what is there and what is not. Especally when a Bogeyman comes to town. But the story is not about Harry.


Inspired by the Disney Movie "Don't Look Under the Bed." I'm bringing to you "Missing Childhood." The characters Zoe and Larry are characters from the original movie. Sit back. Enjoy. Keep the sheets over your head. And welcome to "Missing Childhood."  
  
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Keep Your Head Under the Covers  
  
The alarm clock went off in Harry's room right at 7 am. He turned over to take a look at it and lets out a grunt. He was still tired, and his clock was telling him that it's time to get up. Harry's eyes sprung open when he remembered that he didn't turn it on in the first place. He looked down at it with a strange look before finally turning it off. That's strange. Harry looked out the window and saw that it was still dark. He lets out a long yawn. That's two strange things. There should be some light by now. It may be clouded over. Great. The day was matching his mood. And that would be .. There isn't even a word for it except that he's still upset over Sirius's death. Like nobody isn't after three weeks. Well, maybe Snape. The thought of him made him madder yet. Harry just laid his head back down on his pillow to get back to sleep. Even if it turns out that he can't get back to sleep, he would still be in his bed trying to do so. After a while, banging came on his door. Harry groaned, "What?" It was Uncle Vernon, "Very funny Harry. Having us all think its 7: 10 when it's really 3: 10." Harry was very confused by this, "What?" Vernon opened his door and came into the room, "Look. I have a big day today, and I would like to get plenty of sleep. Now if you were to play your games play it on people that don't have to work to put food on the table." Harry looks at him with a bewildered look, "I didn't do that! My clock went off too, and I didn't even turn it on!" He can tell by the look on Vernon's face that he didn't believe him. The mere fact that his face was turning red was a good indication that he didn't believe him, "No of your games, Harry. Or I'm going to start locking your door at night." With that said Vernon left the room closing the door behind him. Harry didn't stay in bed as he originally planed. Instead he got up, and went out the door. He looked around at every clock and saw that they were all turned to the same time as his. 7: 14. Now that was very strange because he knows that not all the clocks were on the same time before. They were either a minute ahead or a minute behind. He went into the kitchen to find that Dudley hadn't even bothered to get himself up from the table to go back to his room. Instead he just laid his head into his folded arms. It's amazing to see him go from a fat kid to a mussel in just a few sort years. He could have sworn that it would have taken more. Dudley has been acting strange after he came back from school. Simply put, he actually said please in passing the salt. He's been wondering about that ever since. Harry didn't care it was just after three in the morning. He went over to the cuberd and looked inside for the cereal. "It's not in there," mumbled Dudley. Harry closed the door, "Then where is it?" Dudley rose his head from his arms, "I don't know. You tell me." "Oh don't tell me that you think that I changed the clocks too." "If not you then who did?" "I don't know." Harry sits down at the table. "You don't think someone snuck into the house do you?" A look of fear came over Dudley's face when he suggested that. "Not one of those Dem. De." "Dementors? I don't think so. I'm sure if it was them we would have known. Besides, I don't think they would move the clocks forward and take the cereal." Dudley dropped his head back down. "Why don't you go on back to bed?" Some mumbling came from under his arms that sounded like 'U-hu.' But he didn't move. Instead some snoring came up. This was all very strange to Harry. Then again, most of his life was something that most people would consider strange. For starters, Harry was no ordinary boy. He goes to a school called Hogwarts where he learns all the things about the wizardry world. Compared to what he usually goes through, this is pretty much an ordinary day. Harry leaned his head back and rubbed his eyes. It was still early. But as he sat there, he began thinking about that day. Often he would play it backwards and put in different things that he could have done to keep it from happening. To keep Sirius from falling into that veil were no one returns from. To go beyond you are declared dead. But often in the end he finds that none of the ideas would have worked, and he would just have to accept the fact that there was nothing he could have done in that moment. Nothing except for what he could have done before the moment. He could have found out about what the present Sirius gave him really was. He could have gone to the teacher he hates the most, Snape. Harry suddenly realized how tired he was. He folded his arms and laid his head down in them.  
  
"What they do? Come down and realize that they were too tired to get back up to their beds." Harry felt Dudley stir next to him. "Morning." "Yeah, for the second time today." Harry didn't bother to lift his head. He knows far to well that Vernon still believes that it was him that turned to clocks. "Harry, get up. You need to make the bacon." The morning in the kitchen was uneventful. As usual. Just the way the Dursleys like it. Not wanting for what happened last year, Harry was given the strict order to be indoors long before the sun goes down. Harry wasn't much in the mood to argue. In fact, Dudley was given the order as well. Only they want him home about two hours before the sun goes down. What surprised Harry was that he did not argue. It may be that Dudley still remembers that day when the Dementors came up to them and almost lost their souls to those things. Just before Vernon left, the phone ranged. Petunia answered the phone, "This is Petunia speaking." She went all frozen. "Who is it?" asked Vernon. Petunia whispered as though scared to even say, "It's that man with the eye. He wanted to talk to Harry." Harry didn't wait a moment. He went over to the phone and said, "Hello Moody. Are you picking me up soon." Harry didn't watch as Vernon left the room to go to work. "Not for another week Harry. I'm calling to ask you something." "What's that?" "Did your clocks spring forward last night?" "Yeah they did. How did you know?" "Mrs. Figg called and told us about it. I'm just letting you know that I'm coming over to see what it is that's going on." "Why? Is it serious?" "Not so much except that the last time this sort of thing happened, a teenage muggle disappeared." Harry's jaw dropped when he heard that. "I'll be by there around eleven." "Ok." Harry hung the phone up and turned to Petunia and Dudley. "Clocks going forward like this had happened before." Petunia did not like the look on Harry's face. "And?" "A muggle disappeared."  
  
Hearing about a muggle disappear made Petunia frantic. In fact, she put aside all the things she did not like about wizards and spent the time making the place look nice. It's quite obvious that she did not want the disappearance to happen to Dudley, so she was going to make full certain to make the one looking into this happy. Dudley just hid in his room. Things just keeps happening to him when he sees a wizard. Finally eleven came and right on time the door bell rang. Along with some yelling like as if something was happening. Before Harry reached the door, Moody came running through it with cereal all over him. He shut the door like as if he was keeping something out. His magical eye was flying everywhere in its socket. "Defiantly like 1974." "Was he invisible?" Moody snapped, "No he wasn't invisible I just couldn't see him!" Petunia came up, "Was he hiding?" "NO HE WASN'T HIDING I JUST COULDN'T SEE HIM!" For Moody to not see something with his magical eye is beyond wonder. Petunia was startled by the uproar and went into the kitchen. "How can that happen?" "I don't know. All I know is that I was coming up to the door. Nothing in sight. And just after I rung the bell, suddenly the cereal came poring down on me." "You think that it might have been magicked there?" Moody was calming down. But Harry knows that he is far from letting his guard down. Evidently, not even that would keep what ever there from throwing something at him. "Perhaps. The possibility is good. But also unlikely." Cereal falling out of the sky wasn't the only strange thing that happened that day. Graffiti started showing up everywhere with the letter B. It was so bad that it was on the news. There were more things than that happening.  
  
All the street signs near Private Drive were turned somehow to direct to other directions. All the cats in the neighborhood were up in one tree. And attics were flooding. Harry walked around town looking at all the B's that were all around them. He went into the park and was going to the play ground when he saw two people strangely dressed sitting on top of the monkey bars. One was a girl in a pink old English stile outfit, and the other one was a black guy dressed as a cowboy. Harry went by them and sat on one of the swings. He listened in to their conversation. "Oh, yeah, there is defiantly a bogeyman in town." "Gee, what ever may have given you that idea?" The cowboy looked at her like he was annoyed, "Gee, lets analyze this." Harry's eyes went wide when all of a sudden the guy was in a Sherlock Holms outfit and smoking a pipe that blows out bubbles. He was walking on top of the monkey bars like it was solid ground. "First off, we have 'B's appearing everywhere. Secondly a lot of strange unexplained happenings are going on. Does that answer your question Zoe?" Zoe looks at him with a smug expression. "Quite." She looks down at Harry and noticed that he was looking at them. "And we have one that can see us." The guy turned and saw Harry as well, "You can see us?" Harry wasn't sure if he should be talking to them or not. "Uh, yes." "A pleasure to meet you Mr.?" Harry spun around to find that the girl went from sitting on the monkey bars to sitting in the swing right next to him. "Potter. Harry Potter." "Hey I've heard of you," said the guy, now in regular clothing, as he came up to him, "You're that kid that scared off Mr. Mean and Scalely. Names Larry. Larry Houdini." Harry almost laughed, "What? Who are you guys anyway?" Zoe answered the question, "We are imaginary friends." Harry thought of running right about now, "You're what?" Larry said with a tone like as if he were deft, "Imaginary friends. And we are here on a mission." "A mission to do what?" "To track down the bogeyman that's doing all of this." "Wait," Harry rose from his seat, "First off, bogeymen don't exist. They are really just a creature called a boggart." Zoe said, "That is indeed what wizards believe. But the children know that there is a major difference between a boggart and a bogeyman." "Like?" The two started looking around at all the B's that were all over the park as well like as if saying, 'Need I say more.' Harry stood there still not believing what the two are telling him, "Ok, sure. So a bogeyman is a creature that causes trouble." Larry spoke up, "Oh they do a lot more than just trouble. If they can get their hands on someone, say good by to this world and hello to the bogey world. That is unless you keep the covers over your head. Then they can't touch you." Harry remembers something Moody had said. "The bogey world? What do you mean by." Harry looked around to find that the two were gone. That shouldn't be surprising. But he didn't hear a crack, nor did he see them carrying an invisibility cloak.  
  
Harry went home to find that the 'bogeyman' wasn't done with letting Moody know that he can't catch him. Vernon was home at the time and he wasn't saying a word to him. In fact, he looked like he was to scared to say anything. Moody was pacing the living room. He stopped when he saw Harry. "And I don't suppose that you saw him either." "No but I did see two people talking about there being a bogeyman in town." Vernon shot right up, "What? You mean that even those are real?" Moody gave him a look before saying, "Bogeymen don't exist. What children see is a boggart taking the form of what they fear most." Harry said, "I know that, but there was something they said that matches up with what you said happened to the muggle." Moody came up to him and grabbed him by the arm. He took him up to his room before talking again. "What was it they said?" "They said, that if a bogeyman was to get its hands on it's victim, they would take them to the bogey world." "The bogey world?" "That's what they said before they disappeared." Moody slowly passed the room. With his back turned, Harry could see that the 'bogeyman' had painted the letter 'B' to the back of his long coat. "Every time people looked at that I wish he took a knife to me instead." Harry had to admit that it would be embarrassing for that to happen without you noticing. He wondered how people in the Order would react to this. "Could you just clean it off?" "Oh, yes it would be nice if I can. But apparently the culprit knows how easy I can take it off so he used the kind that can't be cleaned by magic. Make a guess where he got it from." Harry wasn't about to, "Where?" "The Weasley's store." That didn't in the least surprise Harry. Fred and George were always coming up with incredible stuff. "Stolen." Now that did surprise Harry. "They got up this morning to find that some items in the store were missing." This was extremely interesting. Who ever is behind this has gone to great lengths to do so. Harry was shaken from his thoughts when Moody shouted, "Go to bed!" Harry made a guess as to who it was. He opened his door and looked out in the hallway to see Dudley hurrying to his room. "Oh, Diddykins!" Dudley turned, red in the face, "What?" "Did the bogeyman do anything to you?" "I heard what that man said. Bogeymen don't exist." With that said, he went into his room and shut the door. Moody said, "Why couldn't I see him? My eye should have spotted him over a mile away." "I don't know. He's doing it some how."  
  
Harry puts down the quill. He wrote some letters that he plans to send to his friends talking about what happened. Does the bogey exist, or doesn't it? Harry went over to his closet to see if there might be some kind of clue that maybe they do. When he opened the door. "Hello Harry." Harry was startled to see in the mirror a man in a raggedy version of what Zoe wore. His hair was slicked back and his finger nails were long. His teeth were pointy, and his smile was wicked. Harry looked behind him expecting to see him there. "Oh, I'm not there. I am here in reverse direction." Harry looked back at the reflection. "What do you want?" "I'm looking for some company. Believe me, it's been quite lonely for some time." Harry pulled out his wand. "Well, you're not going to get me." "Oh, I'm scared. So sorry to disappoint you. But wizards magic, all but one, would work on me." "And what one is that?" "You think me a fool. I think not. A fool is a fool that uses magic as his only tool." Harry wasn't sure as to what to do. The bogeyman was approaching him from the mirror, and he wasn't sure to believe him on with his magic. Then he remembered something Larry told him. "That is unless you keep the covers over your head. Then they can't touch you." Harry ran across the room, got into his bed and pulled the covers over. He sat there and watched as the bogeyman's shadow approached. What is it that kids do other than pulling the covers over their head when a bogeyman comes up to them. They scream. But who to call. He can't really tell if any of the Dursleys are capable of taking on a bogeyman. The shadow was getting bigger. "What in the world were you yelling about?" As embarrassing this may seem, Harry was relieved to hear Dudley's voice. "They do exist." "You mean the bogeyman?" Harry took the covers off. Dudley was looking at him in shock. "Yes. I saw him in my mirror. He was looking to take someone to his world." Dudley looked over at the mirror with fear on his face. "Dudley," said Harry, "Be sure to pull the covers over your head tonight Ok." Dudley nodded his head and left. Harry looks over at his closet door. There was nothing in the mirror now. He rose out of his bed to take a closer look at it. What kind of magic is being used here? Harry came up close to the mirror. So close his nose was almost touching it. There was nothing there, but his own reflection. That was what his thought. By the time he spotted movement, it was already too late to react.  
  
Dudley came into the room with his fists up. He couldn't stand the fact that Harry was able to fight those Dementors while all he could do is just sit there. He made a decision that as soon as the tables are turned, he'd show Harry that he can be just as tough. Dudley looked around the room in bewilderment. He knows he heard a shout, and Hedwig was screeching in her cage. The fact that Harry was no longer in his room told him one thing. The bogeyman has got him. He still had his fists up as he searched around. But nothing could be found. He looked down and saw a note right beside the bed. Dudley may not be too bright on things, but there was no way he was going anywhere near that bed. Dudley looked over at Hedwig. She looked very much incline to get out and do some pounding of her own. He looked back down at the note. Owls are used for carrying messages. Maybe she could get the note for him. He leans over. "Hey owl! You see that note. Get it for me." Hedwig gives Dudley a disdainful look for calling her 'hey owl.' But she did what he asked when he opened the cage. She saw the whole thing herself. The creature put it there before going under the bed with Harry. Dudley opened it up.  
  
Dear whoever opens this letter. Please contact my dear friend Severus at 237-1975. Be sure to tell him that I have a special someone that he would like to get back.  
  
Signed, the bogeyman. 


End file.
